


Things That Go Boom

by thebigpalooka



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: 'Speed' is an R-rated movie, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Just sayin', comfort without much hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23318608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebigpalooka/pseuds/thebigpalooka
Summary: Sonic has a nightmare.  Nothing too traumatic, just a bad dream with a little bit of 'Speed' in it and some pretty laid back family fluff for you. That's it; we all know why we're here. <3
Comments: 27
Kudos: 178





	Things That Go Boom

**Author's Note:**

> This is such a common theme for Sonic movie fics that I almost didn't post this one. But then I thought, actually, do I ever mind reading the same premise ten times, myself? And the answer is NO, I don't, so I'm posting it anyway. Nothing groundbreaking here, but hope it gives you some comfy vibes. Cheers <3

Sonic never really had a lot of bad dreams, but then he didn’t usually remember his dreams anyway. The way things typically went, he would become aware that he was tired, would think about maybe going to sleep soon, and then the next thing he knew, it would be morning. That hadn’t changed much since he’d started living with Tom and Maddie; the main difference was that, now, one of them would usually inform him that he was tired before he had any idea of going to sleep soon, he would object, but get herded up the stairs under protest, and _ then _ the next thing he knew, it would be morning. So obviously, that didn’t leave a lot of time for dreaming, good or bad. 

When he did remember his dreams, they were mostly just weird. Bit and pieces of whatever he’d been thinking about during the day, which was already pretty unpredictable. But, again - just stuff, neither good nor bad. Once in a while, he’d have a dream about mushrooms. Didn’t like those. It was no big deal, though, you just rolled over and groaned at them and went back to sleep.

So it’s not like having nightmares prepared you for having more nightmares, it was just that he had no reason to worry about it. It was summertime; the sun didn’t set until late and he hadn’t come in from kicking around Tom’s old soccer ball and driving Ozzie insane with joy throwing tennis balls faster than they could be fetched until Maddie’d come to the door and called. After that, he’d successfully begged and pleaded a nine o’clock bowl of ice cream out of her - successful probably because Tom had absolutely betrayed her at the last moment and wanted one for himself - and then, even though he was NOT tired, he’d been forced to bed by ten and determined he was gonna read comic books instead, and then that was the last thing he remembered.

Until now, when he found himself standing in his attic bedroom - still affectionately dubbed ‘the cave’ - only it wasn’t quite right and he couldn’t figure out exactly why. Eventually, he decided it was because the stairs were gone and there was just a big gaping hole in the attic floor instead. He didn’t like that; made him feel exposed somehow. But he knew he had to go downstairs, so he dropped his legs down and eased himself through the opening until he could jump to the floor below, and went towards the kitchen. There was a faint rumble from somewhere in the distance. He didn’t know what it was at first, but then, with a jolt, he did. The truck - that big truck Dr. Robotnik had arrived in back when Sonic had first met Tom - or Tom first met him, more like. It was out front again, he just knew it.

“Well, well, well.” 

Sonic spun around. It was Robotnik - he was there, standing in the dining room, just like he was the first time Sonic saw him. He grinned beneath that ridiculous mustache; it looked even bigger and sillier than Sonic remembered. “If it isn’t Sonic the Hedgehog. I suppose you think you’re awfully clever; assimilating into the local culture, becoming one of the tribe.” He paused, jaw jutted out in apparent thought. “...adapting their primitive ways and living off the land. It’s fascinating, really.”

Sonic scowled. It didn’t occur to him to wonder how the doctor had made it back to earth. There was another rumble from somewhere outside. “What’re you doing here, RoBUTTnik? Didn’t learn your lesson the first time?”

“Actually, yes I did, thank you.” He lifted his hand and brandished a strange-looking device. It had an antenna and a bright red glowing light, and Sonic’s gut tightened because he knew right away what it was - a detonator for a bomb. He took a step forward, but Robotnik gave a warning shout.

“Ah ah! Stay right there, Sonic. I’ll do it. I’ll let go. Oh, yeah.” His face twisted into a smile. “You still don’t get it, do you, Sonic? Your life is empty because you try to keep the bomb from becoming! And for who, for what?”

“Where are they?” He almost whispered. He knew what was happening. They were out there, Tom and Maddie - they were out there driving around in Maddie’s sister’s van, the one he’d gotten to drive to San Francisco, and if they slowed down, the bomb would go off. Robotnik just laughed.

There was another crashing rumble, louder this time. The bomb. Sonic ran for the front door and flung it open, almost tumbling down the steps. There was the van, crashed into the garage, a burning fireball. 

“Sonic!”

He turned. He’d been so terrified of finding them both burning up inside the wreckage, but there was no time to feel relief, because now he saw that the explosion had opened up a huge rift in the earth itself, and Tom and Maddie were clinging to the edge of the fissure. The air seemed to fill with the roar as the ground trembled. He tried to run to them, but it felt like he couldn’t move at all. He reached out. “Pret - Donut L - You guys! Hang on! I’ll save you!”

He skidded to his knees at the edge of the abyss just as they started to fall. Just like San Francisco - but he didn’t have any rings this time. They were falling and he reached after them.

“Maddie! Tom!”

  
  


“TOM!”

He was staring up at the skylight, heart hammering against his ribs. It was dark. A dream. Just a dream.

“Sonic!”

No, not a dream, it was real; there was a crashing roar; Tom was shouting his name. He bolted upright. Somehow, his feet had gotten tangled in the sheets at some point and he fell out of bed, kicking his legs free as he hit the floor. Another crash and muffled cursing drifted up from downstairs.

_ “Tom!” _

He took the attic steps in a roll, untucked at the bottom and collided with Tom on the stairs below. He was already talking even before Tom backed up a step so they could look at each other, holding him by the shoulders to keep him in place. Then they talked over each other like that for a couple seconds, saying more or less the same things.

“What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay? I heard you shouting - because you were shouting for ME - no, I’m fine, what’s the matter with  _ you _ ? Will you just tell me what’s going on?!”

It was Tom who finally put a stop to it, holding up both hands to stop the two-way traffic. “...It’s okay. You’re all right. It’s just a little power outage, that’s all.”

“Power outage?” Sonic blinked dazedly. It  _ was  _ awfully dark, even for the middle of the night. He shook his head slowly, still feeling like he wasn’t entirely awake. At the bottom of the stairs, he could see Maddie drift into view, resting a hand on the bannister, a concerned furrow in her brow. A horrible thought occurred to him then, and he looked down at his own hands and arms for any sign of glowing. “But...but how? I was asleep!” He focused on Tom’s face again, a little note of panic creeping into his voice. “You mean even when I’m sleeping, I - oh, no, no - I didn’t - it was just a nightmare, right? I mean, I didn’t even - I don’t know how I could’ve possibly - are you kidding me? This can’t be -”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down, bud!” Tom crouched until they were eye-to-eye and took him by the shoulders again. “Hey. Look at me.” There was a little note of that old Donut Whisperer tone in his voice, the calming, authoritative cop - or maybe it was something just a little different. Warmer. ...Parental, maybe. Maybe it was the voice or maybe it was his eyes. Sonic sucked in a breath as he continued. “It wasn’t you, dude. The storm knocked out the power, that’s all. Probably just for a couple blocks, there’s a lotta big trees around the lines here.”

“Storm? What storm?”

The words were still on his tongue when he became aware of it - the sound of driving rain battering the house. With cinematic perfection, a flash of lightning illuminated Sonic’s shocked face, a split second before a deep rumble of thunder made the house rattle. He flinched, ears flattening. He didn’t quite remember moving closer to Tom, but he must’ve done, because his head was pressed to Tom’s chest and he could feel him chuckle. “...Yeah, that one. You must’ve been sleeping pretty hard, huh?”

Sonic flushed, but didn’t pull back. “I guess so.” He just stood there a moment listening to the rain hammering the roof. There was another crack of thunder. He didn’t flinch this time, but his ears twitched anyway. Maddie sat down two or three steps below where Tom was sitting and he took the hand she reached out, squeezed it.

“...I always have trouble going back to sleep in the middle of a storm,” she murmured after a beat or two. “Why don’t we snuggle up on the couch for a minute until it passes by? I’ll light a few candles.”

“Sounds good,” Tom agreed at once. She smiled and got up, disappearing into the dark kitchen, where Sonic could hear drawers opening after a moment. He shot Tom a questioning look.

“Wh - hey, I-I’m not scared or anything, if that’s what’s going on here.” Tom didn’t say anything at all, just pursed his lips, which was more obnoxious than if he’d spoken. “I’m not a  _ child _ , you know, I’ve slept through dozens of storms. They don’t bother me at all, it -”

Lightning flashed. His ears twitched. He watched Tom’s eyes drift up to them, then back to his face, brows lifting steadily all the time, although he didn’t say anything. Sonic frowned. “...So maybe it’s a little bit louder when you’re right under the roof, and maybe I’m  _ mildly _ scared of the dark, but that’s okay, because guess what, it’s a common fear, and your house doesn’t leak when it rains, so it all evens out.”

“Well, fine, even though we’re all adults here and nobody’s scared, we’re still going downstairs.”

“What for?”

Tom was already down the steps, but he turned and tapped his forehead with a little grin. “Because, smart guys  _ never _ turn down a chance to snuggle.”

“Uck. Oh my god.  _ Gross _ .”

He could hear Tom chortling to himself even as he followed along behind.

Maddie already had a couple candles lit on the coffee table when they got to the family room. Even Sonic had to admit, if only to himself, that it did feel sort of cozy. Tom plopped onto the couch beside her with a tired sigh as she curled herself up and nestled against his shoulder. Sonic stood a little awkwardly in front of the candles until Maddie reached out and gestured to him, then he drifted over. He’d sort of planned to hop up and sit there between them with his feet dangling, like he’d started doing when they watched movies together - before wriggling all over the place depending on how exciting things got, although this wasn’t conscious on his part - but to his surprise, Tom caught him on the way up and the next thing he knew, he was swept up onto Tom’s lap with his feet resting on Maddie’s. He blinked a couple times, but then let his head relax against Tom’s t-shirt. Geez. You could feel the guy’s heartbeat from this close. It was steady and slow. Bet almost nothing ever scared him. Maddie squeezed his foot through his sock and he snorted ticklishly. 

“Hey. Didn’t I hear somebody say something about having nightmares…?” she squinted at him and he sobered.

“Huh? Oh. It was nothing, really. I mean - everybody has nightmares, right?”

“Sure. Once in a while. Don’t usually wake up yelling, though….” He could feel Tom’s head move as he and Maddie glanced at each other. They did that sometimes, and he was starting to notice it more and more often. Frankly, he felt like it was some kind of telepathy and couldn’t decide if it was really cool, or kind of creepy. Even if he couldn’t read minds, though, he wasn’t stupid. He picked up on the little hovering question mark and shrugged.

“Oh, that. That was … a little weird, I guess, but It’s not like I have them all the time. Actually, I almost never have dreams at all, it was probably just the storm anyway. I guess the thunder must’ve sunk into my brain while I was sleeping . Heh, that’s kinda awesome, actually. But I wasn’t  _ scared _ , “ he lifted his head to emphasize this point and Maddie nodded firmly.

“Oh - no way.” 

He relaxed again. If he’d realized they were both letting him talk so much on purpose, he would’ve tried harder to shut up, but he had no idea. Another wave of thunder rolled past, but it wasn’t quite so sharp now, although it was still raining just as hard. “The yelling really wasn’t because of the storm, anyway, that was just the sound effects,” he went on, contradicting himself without ever noticing. “It was just because I dreamed that you guys -”

He bit his tongue, but it was already too late. He could feel those donut-fingers drumming against his back and Maddie’s right eyebrow arched up higher than the left one.

Sonic sighed. Sometimes, those two would look at you in a kind of way that you just knew wasn’t gonna stop until they found out what they wanted. So he told them. About all of it, the whole thing: Robotnik and the van and the bomb and the fire, and watching them fall into the earth’s core.

“...Although,” he concluded,” when I hear it all out loud, it actually sounds pretty cool.”

“A little,” Tom agreed, then cleared his throat as Maddie’s hand thwapped lightly against his ribs. “A little too much tv, I mean. Gotta work in a little more family friendly entertainment for a while, huh?”

“And no more late-night snacks. I  _ warned  _ you about that!”

Tom and Sonic groaned and protested in such unison that Maddie’s mouth twitched and she had to fight to look anything close to stern. “We’ll discuss it in the morning.”

“Yeah, yeah….”

They all fell silent for a bit. The lightning had faded to dull flickers by now, and the thunder, when it finally came, was low and deep. Though the rain continued, the worst of the storm was obviously moving on. It was almost soothing now.

“You know that’s not gonna happen, right?”

Sonic blinked slowly. “Huh?”

“I mean … not just the stuff about the driveway opening up, but … Maddie and me. Nothing’s gonna happen to us. Or  _ you _ . You know that, right?”

Sonic snorted. “Course I know that.” He yawned. “...Even if that whackjob did come back, he’s no match for … Donut Lord an’ … this guy.” He jabbed a thumb at his own face and made a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a snort.

“Exactly.”

It got quiet again. Inside the house, anyway. The thunder was barely audible now, although the rain showed no signs of stopping. There was no way the power would be back on before morning.

Maddie tilted her head, eyes crinkling. “...We lost ‘im, huh?”

Tom pressed his chin to his chest, looking downward. “Dead out. God, I wish I could fall asleep like that.”

“You’re not a kid.”

“Guess not.”

She studied the pair of them fondly for a minute, before rubbing Tom’s shoulder. “Hey. How’s your shin? You need me to look at that bump?”

“Me? Naw. I’ll be fine. Just didn’t expect the table to be there.”

“You mean in the exact same spot it always is.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

She chuckled. “Aw, I’m sorry, babe. It’s not funny, really.” A tender light came into her eyes. “You should’ve seen your face. You were white as a sheet.”

“Should’ve seen  _ yours _ .” 

They’d been laying there awake, listening to the storm, groaning when the alarm clock blinked out, and then they’d heard him up there in the cave, yelling for them. He yelled all the time, that wasn’t so strange, even though most of the time, it was the result of too much positive energy rather than anything more alarming. But he’d sounded different in the dark. Very scared and small and very young.

He looked young now, too. They both watched him for a second, passed out comfortably against Tom’s chest. He looked like a kid. A weird blue alien kid, but a kid.

After a long time, when he felt Maddie stifle a yawn, Tom stirred, gathering up as many limbs as he could find before moving to rise gingerly to his feet. Maddie pulled back to follow him, making sure the handoff was completed successfully first.

“Gonna take him back up to bed?”

“Yeah. I’ll check outside in the morning, make sure there’s no big limbs down, then we can call the power company.”

“Sounds good. I’m gonna go clear a path back to the bedroom.”

He chuckled as she kissed him, and then paused a moment as she passed a hand over the blue head resting heavily on Tom’s shoulder. After a couple seconds, just smiling, she bent and kissed Sonic too, slow, soft, just over one eye and was rewarded with a sleepy mumble. 

They parted ways. He stopped one more time at the base of the steps, just long enough to shift the sleeping hedgehog in his arms, now drooling a little against his shoulder.

Absolutely a kid. No matter what he said about it. Maybe that was what had made Tom almost break his neck trying to get out of the bedroom and up the steps. Maybe he really had believed something was really wrong; he thought he’d believed it. But maybe he would’ve done the exact same thing even if he hadn’t. Who knew.

Worth it, anyway. 

He headed carefully up the steps.


End file.
